Crushed (22 page)

"I don't like you pretending to be a white knight." Sophie muttered, making him grin. "It's confusing."

"I'll be my usual self tomorrow." He assured her.

She rolled her eyes as she left his room, walking silently back to her own. She had no idea how to take his acts of kindness, but she was too overcome to think about it just then.

Sophie glanced across the hallway to Gwyn's doorway where she could see light peeking out. She could hear the three kids talking in low voices, but they were all calm, smothering the last of her worries. Robert had been right when he'd said they'd work it out themselves.

She entered her room as quietly as she could, hoping not to disturb them. Plopping down on her bed, she lifted the old book and opened it to the first page.

For the first few chapters, she was too caught up in her thoughts to really understand what was going on. When she realized she wasn't really reading, she restarted at the beginning.

The first paragraph she'd skimmed through before now caught her interest. This wasn't just another book about a thief, it was a story she'd known about since she was a child.

After all, what child didn't know the story of Robin Hood?

However, there was something in this book she hadn't picked up on while watching the countless reenactments of Robin Hood in movies or plays. She was familiar with the Sherwood Forest and the Merry Men, but there was one specific aspect of the story that she'd skipped over in the past.

The thief in the tale wasn't really named Robin Hood.

His name was one that Sophie had seen only a few weeks ago printed on the back of a card.

"Robert Locksley." She blurted out, realizing the similarity was more than a coincidence.

Sophie closed the book immediately, her eyes widening in surprise.

"Oh." She whispered.

*  *  *

Sophie felt reluctant to wake up the next morning. She'd spent the majority of the night reading, and her eyes were still heavy with sleep. If it wasn't for the sound of someone speaking to her, she would've been happy with sleeping the rest of the morning away.

She groggily propped open one eye, glancing at her alarm clock which read eight o'clock.

"I swear I'm going to kill you." She croaked, slinking back against her pillow. "Leave me alone."

"I wish I was as pleasant as you in the morning."

Sophie groaned as she reached for the pillow behind her head. She launched it in the direction of Robert's voice, but she knew from the sound of the soft thud that she'd missed. For a split moment, she considered hurling her other pillow at him, but she'd lost her willpower. She was far too tired to care about getting revenge.

"That's not the response you should have towards someone who's trying to help you." He chided.

"Go away." She ordered, her eyes closing. "Why are you in my room?" She asked rudely, feeling agitated that he was slowly waking her up. In a few more minutes she wouldn't be able to fall back asleep.

"It's more fun this way. If I waited for you to come to me, we'd never get anything done. You're very stubborn."

"Give me five minutes." She pleaded.

"Sorry, I can't do that."

"Okay, give me ten." She continued.

Robert laughed, sounding sincerely amused. "I thought you would be difficult. Which is why I brought this to help you wake up."

Sophie distinctly heard a sloshing sound as he picked up something in a cup. Her first thought was that it was water, and that only meant one thing.

"I'm up!" She bolted into a sitting position, holding out her hands so that he wouldn't throw water on her.

To Sophie's surprise, Robert hadn't been holding a cup of water at all. He was holding a mug of coffee, and offering it out to her in a polite way.

His eyes were questioning, but Sophie was too embarrassed to tell him the truth.

"I'm up." She repeated, calmer this time. She snatched the mug of coffee away from him, and took a greedy sip. The coffee was bordering on lukewarm, leading Sophie to wonder how long he'd been sitting in her room, waiting for her to wake up. "You get ten more creepy points for watching me sleep."

"I thought you'd appreciate me bringing the work to you."

"Nope. I'm mostly just creeped out."

"Well, I'll find a way to get over it." Robert rolled his eyes.

Now that she was more than halfway awake, she began to notice what was going on. He was sitting at the desk beside her bed, having cleared a work area for himself. He'd brought his laptop and various files that were strewn around his station.

"Seriously?" She asked, glaring at him. "You don't have anywhere else to work?"

Robert had obviously decided he was done arguing with her. He ignored her question in order to change the subject.

"I found the first target." He offered, turning to pull up a picture on his laptop. "I went through the trouble of listing, in order of relevance, the people your parents knew during their time with Cleo. This is the man we're going to start with."

Sophie immediately focused on the laptop. She sensed the time for joking was over. She had everything riding on this mission.

"His name's Anton Slavsky." Robert pulled up the man's picture, and Sophie examined it closely. Slavsky was the same age as Cleo and Max, with a shaved head and a peppery gray mustache. His eyes were narrow and cold. A shiver when down Sophie's spine when she realized how threatening he looked.

"He's a thief?" She asked, her eyebrows knitting in confusion. Someone of Slavsky's huge size would not be able to blend in whatsoever. Unless he was at a bodybuilder convention, he would stick out like the giant that he was.

Robert's eyes narrowed as he glanced at Slavsky. "No, he's the man Max put in charge of finding your parents. He has connections with the FBI."

She was momentarily relieved that Slavsky wasn't a good guy. She would've found it hard to trust someone so obviously threatening. Then, she realized she didn't want someone like his as an enemy either.

"Exactly what kind of connections are we talking about?"

"The kind that can get him information on anyone whenever he wants it." Robert scrolled down the man's profile, which was surprisingly detailed. "As you can probably guess, he's the best of the best when it comes to tracking people. He has an information network that is unrivaled to any other in the country. If there's someone who might have a clue to where your parents hid the paintings, it'll be him."

"You've done your research." She commented, honestly impressed.

"I've been working on this case long before you entered the picture." He sounded uncaring, but Sophie was too curious to let him get away with such a statement.

"Why is that?" Sophie's eyes narrowed in on him. She wasn't going to miss anything when he answered.

"I wasn't going to tell you, but since you were eavesdropping, I assume you know already." He shuffled through the pile of papers on her desk. When he pulled out an aged, yellow envelope, Sophie's heart clenched. "This is the letter I was speaking to Cleo about. It's from your mother."

"She wrote you?" Sophie asked in a hushed voice.

"Not exactly. I found the letter after moving into this house when I was eighteen years old. At the time, I thought it was written to me. Now, I've realized that it was meant for someone else." He guessed her next question before she could ask it. "I don't know who that person is. If I did, we'd be starting with them, not Slavsky."

"What's Slavsky up to now?" She watched him turn his head back to the computer screen. In one swift movement, she'd reached out and snatched the envelope out of his hands. She suspected he wouldn't give it to her without a price, so this was her only chance.

Before he could stop her, she ripped open the envelope and reached inside. To her disappointment, it was empty.

"Nice try." Robert smirked at her arrogantly. "I figured you'd pull something stupid like that."

She was beginning to resent how well he was getting to know her. Tossing the empty envelope to the ground, she turned her attention back to Slavsky.

"To answer your question, Slavsky's always been connected to shady organizations. I would list them all, but it's really irrelevant. All we need to focus on is the information he has on your parents."

"I'm relieved that we don't have to steal from this guy. I would hate to get on his bad side." Sophie shuddered again as she stared into the man's cold eyes.

"What made you think we're not going to steal from him?" Robert stared at her like she was an idiot. "He's not just going to hand over the information about your parents."

"What?" Her voice cracked. "You mean we have to steal it from him?"

"Well, given our circumstances, it's the only option. We could buy it from him for a small fortune, but that would mean tipping off Max. Cleo's made it clear we're to be working in secret."

"You talked to Cleo?"

"Yes, I informed her that I told you everything, and that you're prepared to take on the challenge. She still doesn't believe you know nothing, but this is the best we can hope for."

"What exactly is the best?"

"She's letting me work with you. The worst case scenario would've been if she'd ordered me to stay out of it." Sophie found it odd that he sounded positive.

"I didn't know you were so obedient." She commented.

"I'm not. Even if she'd told me not to work with you, I wouldn't have listened. I just find that it's better to be on her good side."

Sophie smiled, knowing she was seeing a bit of Robert's own stubbornness leak through.

"So, the goal of this next mission is to steal from Slavsky without getting killed?"

"More or less." Robert closed his laptop and began cleaning up his papers.

"You're not the least bit scared at how difficult this is going to be?"

"Not really. I've stolen from scarier people in the past." He offered out his arm, and rolled up his sleeve so that she could see the star that twisted up the inside of his arm. She hadn't noticed it before, though she cringed when she saw how long the cut had been. "I relieved this present from stealing from a drug lord in Burma."

"You're lying." Sophie accused, trying not be gullible enough to believe him. A sudden thought flickered through her mind, reminding her of what she'd realized the night before. "Speaking of lying, I appreciate you giving me another false name, Mr. Robin Hood. Do all thieves get to adopt famous titles?"

"No, just the clever ones. I'm surprised you didn't realize it before."

"How stupid of me to believe in your word." She rolled her eyes. "Don't you think it's a little arrogant to name yourself after Robin Hood? It's almost terribly cliche."

"I like it." He replied as he finished packing up his things. "Why should I care what others think?"

"So there's no chance of you telling me your real name?"

"Probably not." He answered, grinning mischievously and standing from his chair. "This ends my report. Now that you've been informed of the objective, I've done my part. I'm looking for a date for the mission in the next month. I'll tell you when I've got one."

"Next month?" Sophie had become used to having missions occur almost instantly after being brought up.

"I have to prepare. We're talking about stealing from a man who's made a career out of selling off information. If just anyone could break into his system, he wouldn't be as famous as he is today."

"What should I do while I wait?"

"Study." He answered simply. "I've left you a couple notebooks." He motioned to them sitting on her desk. "They contain every escape route I've ever used. Memorizing them will be your first step to thinking like a thief. I'll send you summaries of some of my early missions, so you can get a feel for what's expected of you."

Sophie couldn't help but feel overwhelmed with how much he was laying out before her. She hadn't realized how much he'd been holding back until she'd seen how he could work when he was serious.